Importance of Higher Education in Afghanistan

Least developed countries are often surrounded by many challenges and problems. Such countries endeavor to overcome the problems raised but seldom succeed to get rid of the threats. And unluckily, Afghanistan is one of such back warded countries that has been stuck in problems for long and strives to solve the dilemmas but has not yet been capable of doing so. Then what should Afghans concentrate on in order to remove such deteriorating situation? Or what can assist Afghanistan in putting an end to its sensitive problems? Certainly, modern education is the key to solve the problems, not of Afghanistan but also of the entire third world countries. That is to say, higher studies play a positive role in resolving current challenges faced by Afghans. What are the major significances of higher education, particularly for Afghans are discussed bellow respectively.

One of the prior importances of higher studies in Afghanistan is to hamper civil war. Afghanistan has been the victim of civil war for the last four decades due to lack of high level of modern studies. Afghans really need higher education so that they become capable of acting both for their own and Afghanistan’s best interest. In order words, if they gain higher education, they will be in a better position to make rational and correct decisions which would positively affect the entire country in reducing violence and empowering mutual understanding and collaboration between the citizens and the government. The country has been suffering since long for instability and insecurity as it lacks modern education that put the war-torn nation into the ditches of backwardness. Insurgents are persistently threatening innocents and put them in trouble. The reason why the government cannot ensure security despite having the support of international forces such as NATO and ASAF is just because of low level of modern education across the country. Most of Afghans are misused by other countries to obstruct the peace process or stability in the country and the fact is that these Afghans don’t realize that they are misused. Such Afghans are not well-educated; that is why, they are easily deceived, become the weapon of the enemies and are used against their own country. The conflict that has been going on in Afghanistan can be solved slowly through talks, dialogues and peace conferences but Afghans astray are not willing to attend such conventions and instead prefer violence. It is because they don’t have good level of wisdom or understanding. If they were well-educated, now they would drop their guns and join the peace process. To sum up, the only great solution to pull over and put an end to the ongoing civil war in Afghanistan is to provide each and every male and female Afghan with higher education.

The second significance of higher education in the land-locked country is taking the lead of economical activities by Afghans. Indeed, inadequate qualified policymakers are a severe problem for Afghanistan; that is why, most of the key positions are run and taken by foreigners who enjoy earning handsome revenues. Telecom Industry and Education sector are the a few success stories of Afghanistan since the new government was established. And the leading positions are filled by outsiders. The question is how long we Afghans should dependent on other’s direction. The answer is crystal-clear and simple as long as we don’t elevate our education level. As matter of fact, foreigners have been dominating the key positions throughout the country. For example, in private higher education sector, 80%-85% of the employees are from abroad playing good positions such as lecturers, Chancellors, Vice Chancellors, Head of Departments, General Managers, Directors and so on. It explicitly signifies that international employees are dominating the overall high positions in the country. On the other hand, having such abundant number of international employees puts negative implications on the economy as Afghanistan has more outflows out of dollars constantly. I am not against outsiders working in Afghanistan but yes I am against their dominancy. They should remain as guests, not hosts. It should be Afghans who ought to dominate and lead their all industries themselves and develop policies in accordance with the best interest of their country and people. Our economy is called cosmetics economy which means apparently it looks good but in fact it has nothing inside. It is because Afghans could not develop their economic infrastructure. So, what is the best way for Afghans to take the lead of industries, businesses and companies or local productions in Afghanistan? Afghan nationals should upgrade their higher education level so that they could lead their economic activities by themselves.

One more worth of higher studies of in Afghanistan is the reduction of unemployment, which acts like cancer in Afghan society. Lack of higher studies of Afghans leads them to the unemployment problem. Existence of international employees sufficiently with good qualifications has caused the major problem of joblessness for Afghans because when there is an outsider, there is a rare chance of employment for an Afghan due to comparatively low qualifications of Afghan applicants and the wrong misunderstanding and bad culture recently developed in Afghanistan to prioritize foreigners over Afghan nationals. For these two main reasons, international applicants get the job but Afghan applicants are left with no option but going back home hopelessly. In addition, there exists a huge discrimination of compensation issue for Afghan employees if hired by any chance. As said before, first Afghan applicants are not mostly recruited if there is any outsider, but if Afghan applicants are offered the job, there comes the win-lose situation. Employer is happy to recruit Afghan employees with lowest possible salary. However, most of Afghan applicants are not satisfied with how much they are paid and have no choice but to accept the offer. And frankly talking to me it is not offer of an opportunity but exploiting of such poor Afghan applicants skills and expertise. Furthermore, the difference in compensation package of an Afghan employee and outsider in Afghanistan is never justifiable and it is because of low qualifications of Afghans that has paved the ground for others to run key positions with great compensation. The compensation of the outsiders is talking with the sky but the salary of most Afghans is as much as hand to mouth. For instance, an Afghan ESL teacher in Afghanistan is paid 500-600 USD monthly but the same position with the same responsibilities to an outsider is above 1200 USD. Based on my studies and experiences, we Afghans should focus more to get higher education if we want to change this wrong culture in our country and be well able to compete with outsiders inside and outside Afghanistan and prove that we can do what others can do. To conclude, higher education will dramatically assist Afghans in building a career which would result in reducing unemployment problem throughout the country.

The last but not the least value of higher education in Afghanistan is well-management of human resource. Inadequate level of higher professional studies of Afghans caused mismanagement of resources, especially human resource. Afghanistan’s work force is compiled to immigrate illegally or legally to other countries for jobs, especially to Iran because of which we are consistently losing our work force and cannot utilize such vital asset. I have studied Business Administration where I touched fundamentals of economics. Based on my studies, Afghanistan’s economical situation is deteriorating day by day only because there is no expert to utilize the resources in Afghanistan, specifically human and natural resources. Furthermore, Afghanistan has cosmetics economy which means apparently it looks good but has nothing in it in reality and that is true because the land-locked country does not have much active production or exports and its economy mostly depends imports and international aid due to which Afghanistan is always in deficit. Moreover, Afghanistan is the second country that has received the largest international aid but I don’t know where the amount has gone? It drives me crazy when I think of such huge donations but still Afghanistan is one of the most impoverished nations of the world. In fact, according to the World Bank, 36% of Afghans are living under the poverty line running after basic needs, food, shelter and clothes. I know that highly corrupt system in the country has eaten up the major portion of the aid, but still the system can/could be reformed if we have/had expert to bring a transparent system and manage their financial resources well. It is explicitly denotes that Afghans cannot utilize their resources efficiently and the main reason is inadequate level of higher studies. To rape up, our resources, specifically human resource will be utilized and managed effectively provided that our policy makers get well equipped with higher professional studies.

As discussed above, higher education is seriously required in Afghanistan which can bring the aforementioned prosperity to Afghans. As matter of fact, Afghanistan has been suffering from many dilemmas such as civil war, mismanagement of resources, unemployment and poverty. The solution to dissolve these problems is the access of Afghans to advanced education. If Afghans become well-educated, then they would be wise enough to understand how to pave the way of opportunities for the rest of patriots and create more job opportunities for unemployed Afghans by focusing on creating factories, companies, industries, and many other forms of local productions in the country because of which Afghans will no longer quit their country and would result in building national capacities. As a result, it will help the economy grow. To conclude, higher education plays significant role in bringing prosperity such as peace, economic stability, reduction of unemployment and poverty in Afghanistan. Therefore, I once again insist that Afghans should strive to get more higher education.